Friday, March 08, 2013

In the greatest 24 hours in Italian baseball history, Team Italy has not only dramatically emerged on the international scene, but it may have uncovered a future major-league hitting coach.

Mike Piazza watched his team destroy Team Canada 14-4 Friday in its second huge upset of the World Baseball Classic. The Italians are almost a cinch to move onto the second round.

...“I’m doing a lot of cheering,’’ Piazza said, “and a lot of praying. My job is to just fine-tune it a little bit. I’m just trying to keep it simple. The way they’ve been throwing great at-bats out there, it’s impressive.

“We just came in prepared. We did our homework. All our guys did extra work in the cages.

“We didn’t want to just show up and look good. We wanted to play well.’‘

So how about it? Is there a major-league hitting coaching job in his future?

“You never say never,’’ Piazza said. “I’m just trying to stay in the moment and see what my future holds. It’s fun to have these guys talk to you. You keep them loose. A lot of guys walk over and talk hitting. You learn as much talking about hitting as the hitting mechanics.

“It’s just very satisfying. At least I’m giving back to the game that gave so much to me. I know how much coaches gave to me.”

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